So we all pretty much know what pawn shops typically do. That is that they offer cash loans against your valuable merchandise so that you can come back and get it at a later point in time.
But with that having been said, what other services do pawn shops typically also offer?
Specifically for the purpose of this question, do pawn shops also do payday loans?
This is a really interesting question because to a lot of people, these are two competing industries that don’t seem to have a long reputation of working well together.
But with that having been said, it might surprise you to learn that there are in fact pawn shops out there that also do offer payday loans as an alternative means of financing for their customers to use should they need to.
This is actually a great service for certain customers in some scenarios. For instance, not everyone has something that they are able to pawn – that a pawn shop will accept – for that they are able to not have in their immediate possession for a period of time during the period of that loan.
In these scenarios, a pawn shop offering this second means of financial aid is really helpful and nothing but good for the customer in the end.
While most do not, some pawn shops do offer payday loans to their customers as an added convenience.
How Do I Find Pawn Shops That Offer Payday Loans
Now with that in mind there are some things that we need to cover.
First of all, most pawn shop do not offer payday loans in their locations. In fact, it really is the minority of pawn shops that offer these services overall.
It’s far more common for pawn shops to also offer check cashing than it is for them to offer payday loans as an additional service. It’s just not something that you see all that often.
That having been said, you can find these “Hybrid Financiers” as I call them just by using Google and a few minutes of your time to track them down.
What you will want to do is go over to Google.com and search the phrase “Local Pawn Shops.” Google will return a list of pawn shop in your area, along with their addresses and phone numbers.
In order to find a pawn shop that offers payday loans, you will want to go through that list, one-by-one and call each store to see if they make payday loans available to their customers.
With any luck you may be able to find one or two that do, but just keep in mind what I said above. Pawn shops that offer payday loans are really the minority of pawn shops out there. Most pawn shops stick almost exclusively to pawn loans because it’s a business that they know well and it’s what their customers expect when they walk into a pawn shop.
Which Are Better – Pawn Loans or Payday Loans
So here’s the next question that I often get asked in these scenarios with the ‘Hybrid Financiers.”
Should someone get a pawn loan or should they instead opt for a payday loan? Well, I might be a little biased but most of the time I would suggest sticking with the pawn loan under just about every circumstance where possible.
As a general rule of thumb, pawn loans are less aggressive, have lower interest rates and much easier payback terms over the payday loans. That however is just a general rule and isn’t always the case as pawn laws are set state-by-state and some states do allow for more assertive pawn loan guidelines.
However, don’t rule out payday loans completely. There are some scenarios like those that we discussed above where a payday loan may be a great option for you. That is particularly true if you need more money than what a pawn shop is willing to loan you against your items or of course, in the scenario under which you have nothing that you can make a loan against to begin with.
The Pawnnerd’s Opinion
This is just my 2 cents.
I’m not looking to bash any industry or any type of financial service in general. However my preference has always been with pawn loans because they are what I know well and I’ve never really seen anyone put into hardship as a result of a pawn loan.
These types of loans really are quite harmless because if for whatever reason you can’t afford to pay it back, there’s really nothing negative that can happen to you. The pawn shop just forfeits the item(s) and sells them to recover their money. It’s quick, clean and simple.
It’s also the reason that I prefer those types of loans as short-term financial instruments over the other options that may be available to you when you are in a difficult time and need access to quick cash to see you through it.
